Teenage cable thief, 16, killed when he was hit by 8,000 volt shock at demolished power station

A teenage boy was killed by an electric shock while trying to steal copper cable, an inquest heard.

Ryan Woolams, 16, died instantly when he touched a live wire sending around 8,000 volts through his body.

The dead teen had also been shocked twice before when stealing copper – one so powerful it flung him across a room, the inquest heard.

Warning: The coroner said cable thieves faced deadly consequences after recording a death by misadventure verdict for Ryan Woolams, pictured on the motorbike

But undeterred by those incidents and ignoring a number of warning signs, Ryan and three friends had entered a demolished former power station near his home on the afternoon of July 3, last year, to steal cable, Wakefield Coroners Court, West Yorkshire, was told.

After removing bolts from a security plate Ryan, the youngest of four brothers, from Stourton, south Leeds, accessed an earthing pit in the ground and began to remove a copper support rod from the cables below, it was said.

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The cables were still connected to the national system and were classed as high voltage with as much as 132,000 volts running through them.

Friend Anthony Ward, who was with him at the time, said in a statement that just before he died, Ryan was ‘mucking about a bit and actually pretended to have an electric shock’.

He said he then saw his friend start to shake and a four foot blue flame come out of the pit before Ryan slumped against the pit side and stopped moving.

All three friends left the site to get help, and a security guard who had seen the smoke while on patrol and found Ryan’s body, called the police.

Passing a verdict of death by misadventure, coroner David Hinchliff emphasised the large scale problem of copper theft.

High price: The large scale problem of copper theft, which costs the country millions of pounds a year, was highlighted during the inquest

He said: ‘All four agreed to steal any copper wire inside and share the spoils. But very sadly Ryan paid the ultimate price didn’t he?’

He added: ‘There is very rarely a day when we don’t read or hear on the news that the whole railway network in certain areas has been left stranded because of cable theft or the like.

‘But what happened on this occasion is a national problem.’

Mr Hinchliff added that people are entering premises and taking copper illegally ‘with the sole desire of stealing the cable because of its high price and turning it into cash’.

The inquest was told how safety devices and defences against theft had been circumvented on the site.

As well as the metal plate, the pit where the teen died was protected by a one-and-a-half tonne block of concrete that would have been on top of the cover. But this had been moved at an earlier point.

The block was marked with warning signs and there were High Voltage signs around the site as well as regular patrols by guards - but could be accessed relatively easily, the inquest heard.

The coroner said to Detective Constable Damian Hunt, who investigated the incident, that he had no doubt Ryan and his friends ‘went to the site with the sole intention of finding copper cable they would use for financial gain’.

DC Hunt replied: ‘Yes , that’s right.’

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Teenage cable thief, 16, killed when he was hit by 8,000 volt shock at demolished power station